1 Corinthians 6:12 - Exposition

All things are lawful unto me. The abruptness with which the phrase is introduced perhaps shows that, in the letter of the Corinthians to St. Paul, they had used some such expression by way of palliating their lax tolerance of violations of the law of purity. By "all things," of course, is only meant "all things which are indifferent in themselves." They erroneously applied this maxim of Christian liberty to that which was inherently sinful, and thus were tempted to "make their liberty a cloak of viciousness." St. Paul, as Bengel observes, often, and especially in this Epistle, uses the first person generally in gnomic or semi-proverbial sentences ( 1 Corinthians 6:15 ; 1 Corinthians 7:7 ; 1 Corinthians 10:23 , 1 Corinthians 10:29 , 1 Corinthians 10:30 ; 1 Corinthians 14:11 ). But. This is St. Paul's correction of too broad a formula. Are not expedient. St. Paul illustrates this in 1 Corinthians 8:8-10 . We have no right to do even that which is innocent, if it be disadvantageous to the highest interests of ourselves or others. "He alone," says St. Augustine, "does not fall into unlawful things who sometimes abstains by way of caution even from lawful ones." Will not be brought under the power. The play of words in the original might be imitated by saying, "All things are in my power, but I will not be brought under the power of any." In other words, "boundless intemperance" may become a tyranny. The pretence of moral freedom may end in a moral bondage.

"Obedience is better than freedom? What's free?

The vexed foam on the wave, the tossed straw on the sea;

The ocean itself, as it rages and swells,

In the bonds of a boundless obedience dwells."

I will be master even over my liberty by keeping it under the beneficent control of law and of charity.